The Nest Builder Part 42

The staff became first relieved, then enthusiastic. What a spring display they were to have! On the third day hundreds of primrose-yellow envelopes, inscribed in green ink to the studio's clients, poured into the letter-chute. Within them an announcement printed in flowing green script read, under Felicity's letterhead, "I offer twenty-one original designs for spring raiment, created by me under the inspiration of a sojourn in the South. Each will be modified to the wearer's personality, and none will be duplicated. I am about to travel in Europe, there to gain atmosphere for my fall creations." After her signature, was stamped, by way of seal, a tiny woodcut of Stefan's faun.

The last design was complete by Friday, and on Sat.u.r.day Felicity sailed on the Mauretania, her suite of three rooms a wilderness of flowers.

Marchmont, calling at the apartment to escort her to the boat, found the dance-room swathed in sheeting, its heavy carpet rolled into a corner.

Evidently, this was to be no brief "sojourn." The heavy Einsbacher was at the dock to see her off, together with a small pack of nondescript young men. Constance was not there, and Marchmont guessed that she had not been told of her friend's departure.

Einsbacher had the last word with Felicity. "I hope you will like the vlowers," he whispered gutturally. "Let me know if I may make you a present of the Nixie," and he gave a thick smile.

"You know my rule," she murmured, her lids heavy, a bored droop at the corners of her mouth. "Nothing worth more than five dollars, except flowers. Why should I break it--" her voice hovered--"for you?"--it sank. She turned away, melting into the crowd. Marchmont, with malicious pleasure, watched Einsbacher's discomfited retreat.

In her cabin Felicity collected all the donors' cards from her flowers and, stepping outside, with a faint smile dropped them into the sea.

XI

It was the end of April, and Paris rustled gaily in her spring dress.

Stefan and Adolph, clad in disreputable baggy trousers topped in one case by a painter's blouse and in the other by an infinitely aged alpaca jacket, strolled homeward in the early evening from their favorite cafe.

Adolph was in the highest spirits, as he had been ever since Stefan's arrival three weeks before, but the other's face wore a rather moody frown. He had begun to weary a little of his good friend's ecstatic pleasure in their reunion.

He was in Paris again, in his old attic; it was spring, and his beloved city as beautiful as ever. He had expected a return of his old-time gaiety, but somehow the charm lacked potency. He wanted to paint, but his ideas were turgid and fragmentary. He wanted excitement, but the city only seemed to offer memories. The lapse of a short eighteen months had scattered his friends surprisingly. Adolph remained, but Nanette was married. Louise had left Paris, and Giddens, the English painter, had gone back to London. Perhaps it was the spring, perhaps it was merely the law which decrees that the past can never be recaptured--whatever the cause, Stefan's flight had not wholly a.s.suaged his restlessness.

Of adventures in the hackneyed sense he had not thought. He was too fastidious for the vulgar sort, and had hitherto met no women who stirred his imagination. Moreover, he harbored the delusion that the failure of his great romance had killed his capacity for love. "I am done with women," he said to himself.

Mary seemed very distant. He thought of her with grat.i.tude for her generosity, with regret, but without longing.

"Never marry," he said to Adolph for the twentieth time, as they turned into the rue des Trois Ermites; "the wings of an artist must remain unbound."

"Ah, Stefan," Adolph replied, sighing over his friend's disillusionment, "I am not like you. I should be grateful for a home, and children. I am only a cricket sc.r.a.ping out my little music, not an eagle."

Stefan snorted. "You are a great violinist, but you won't realize it.

Look here, Adolph, chuck your job, and go on a walking tour with me.

Let's travel through France and along the Riviera to Italy. I'm sick of cities. There's lots of money for us both, and if we run short, why, bring your fiddle along and play it--why not?"

At their door the concierge handed Adolph some letters.

"My friend," said he, holding up a couple of bills, "one cannot slip away from life so easily. How should I pay my way when we returned?"

"Hang it," said Stefan impatiently, "don't you begin to talk obligations. I came to France to get away from all that. Have a little imagination, Adolph. It would be the best thing that could happen to you to get shaken out of that groove at the Opera--be the making of you."

They had reached the attic, and Adolph lit a lamp.

"We'll talk of it to-morrow, my infant, now I must dress--see, here is a letter for you."

He handed Stefan a tinted envelope, and began leisurely to don his conventional black. Holding the note under the lamp, Stefan saw with a start that it was from Felicity, and had been left by hand. Excited, he tore it open. It was written in ordinary ink, upon pale pink paper, agreeably scented.

"My dear friend," he read in French, "I am in Paris, and chancing to remember your old address--("I swear I never told her the number," he thought)--send this in search of you.

How pleasant it would be to see you, and to have a little converse in the sweet French tongue. You did not know that it was my own, did you? But yes, I have French-Creole blood.

One is happy here among one's own kind. This evening I shall be alone. Felicity."

So, she was a Creole--of the race of Josephine! His pulses beat.

Cramming the note into his pocket he whirled excitedly upon his friend.

"Adolph," he cried, "I'm going out--where are my clothes?" and began hastily to rummage for his Gladstone amidst a pile of their joint belongings. Throwing it open, he dragged out his dress suit--folded still as Mary had packed it--and strewed a table with collars, ties, s.h.i.+rts, and other accessories.

"Hot water, Adolph! Throw some sticks into the stove--I must shave,"

he called, and Adolph, amazed at this sudden transformation, hastily obeyed.

"Where do you go?" he asked, as he filled the kettle.

"I'm going to see a very attractive young woman," Stefan grinned.

"Wow, what a mercy I brought some decent clothes, eh?" He was already stripped, and shaking out a handful of silk socks. Something clicked to the floor, but he did not notice it. The dressing proceeded in a whirl, Adolph much impressed by the splendors of his friend's toilet. A fine s.h.i.+rt of tucked linen, immaculate pumps, links of dull gold--his comrade in Bohemia had completely vanished.

"O la, la!" cried he, beaming, "now I see it is true about all your riches!"

"I'm going to take a taxi," Stefan announced as he slipped into his coat; "can I drop you?"

He stood ready, having overtaken Adolph's sketchy but leisured dressing.

"What speed, my child! One moment!" Adolph shook on his coat, found his gla.s.ses, and was crossing to put out the lamp when his foot struck a small object.

"What is this, something of yours?" He stooped and picked up a framed snapshot of a girl playing with a baby. "How beautiful!" he exclaimed, holding it under the lamp.

"Oh, yes," said Stefan with a slight frown, "that's Mary. I didn't know I had it with me. Come on, Adolph," and he tossed the picture back into the open Gladstone.

While Adolph found a taxi, Stefan paused a moment to question the concierge. Yes, monsieur's note had been left that afternoon, Madame remembered, by une pet.i.te Chinoise, bien chic, who had asked if Monsieur lived here. Madame's aged eyes snapped with Gallic appreciation of a possible intrigue.

Stefan was glad when he had dropped Adolph. He stretched at ease along the cus.h.i.+ons of his open taxi, breathing in the warm, audacious air of spring, and watched the faces of the crowds as they emerged under the lights to be lost again mysteriously in the dusk.

Paris, her day's work done, was turning lightly, with her entrancing smile, to the pursuit of friends.h.i.+p, adventure, and love. All through the scented streets eyes sought eyes, voices rose in happy laughter or drooped to soft allurement. Stefan thrilled to the magic in the air. He, too, was seeking his adventure.

The taxi drew up in the courtyard of an apartment house. Giving his name, Stefan entered a lift and was carried up one floor. A white door opened, and the small Yo San, with a salutation, took his hat, and lifted a curtain. He was in a long, low room, yellow with candlelight.

Facing him, open French windows giving upon a balcony showed the purpling dusk above the river and the black shapes of trees. Lights trickled their reflection in the water, the first stars shone, the scent of flowers was heavy in the air.

All this he saw; then a curtain moved, and a slim form appeared from the balcony as silently as a moth fluttering to the light.

"Ah, Stefan, welcome," a voice murmured.

The setting was perfect. As Felicity moved toward him--her gown fluttering and swaying in folds of golden pink as delicately tinted as the petals of a rose--Stefan realized he had never seen her so alluring.

Her strange eyes shone, her lips curved soft and inviting, her cheeks and throat were like warm, white velvet.

He took her outstretched hand--of the texture of a camelia--and it pulsed as if a heart beat in it.

"Felicity," he half whispered, holding her hand, "how wonderful you are!"

"Am I?" she breathed, sighingly. "I have been asleep so long, Stefan.

perhaps I am awake a little now."